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'Instinctively, they should know where it is falling, but sometimes they don’t know which way to jump.’

The unfortunate animal was found by logger Leif Hægeland, who told Norway's state broadcaster NRK that in 25 years as a woodsman he'd never seen a beaver killed by the tree it was taking down.

One zoologist said: 'Instinctively, they should know where it is falling, but sometimes they don’t know which way to jump’

Beavers are now living in Britain for the first time in 500 years, it was recently reported.

A population of these huge, aquatic rodents has been at large on the River Tay in Scotland since the turn of the millennium. And now nine animals — four adults and five youngsters — are roaming free in England, appropriately, perhaps, on the River Otter in Devon.

No one knows exactly where they came from, but it’s likely a pair or two managed to squeeze through a hole in a fence from a collection somewhere in the area.

There were fears they might carry diseases hazardous to humans, but having been trapped and given the all-clear by officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and by vets from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, they are now all safely back in the wild.